Chapter 64: Sojourner Truth delivers her “Ain’t I A Woman” speech. 

Escapee Isabella Baumfree experiences a religious conversion in 1843, changes her name to Sojourner Truth, and becomes a popular abolitionist lecturer. Her remarks at an 1851 Women’s Rights Convention ring out for racial and gender equality.

Look at me. Look at my arm, I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me–and ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it) and bear de lash as well–and ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen ’em mos’ all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard–and ain’t I a woman?